Timeless Buddhist wisdom quotes celebrating mindfulness, compassion, and enlightenment.

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.
Buddha
The nature of the mind is like the sky, and our thoughts, emotions, and experiences are like clouds passing through it.
Mingyur Rinpoche
What we learn about the world is colored by the way we approach it.
Sharon Salzberg
Real peace comes from seeing things as they really are, not as we want them to be.
Mahasi Sayadaw
For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible. For whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.
Nagarjuna
The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.
Pema Chodron
Don't try to push away the darkness. Just light a lamp. The darkness will disappear by itself.
S N Goenka
Awareness is always with us. We don't need to create it or achieve it - we just need to recognize what's already there.
Mingyur Rinpoche
The spiritual journey begins with the recognition that beneath our surface happiness there lies a deep inner pain.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.
Buddha
Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
Dalai Lama
Whatever is dependently co-arisen, that is explained to be emptiness. That, being a dependent designation, is itself the middle way.
Nagarjuna
Our task is not to seek for love but to find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it.
Sharon Salzberg
Nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change. Being is always becoming.
S N Goenka
Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.
Dogen
The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.
Suzuki Roshi
The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.
Alan Watts
The Buddha's path is not about becoming somebody different but about becoming more and more who you really are.
Ajahn Brahm
In my youth I studied, in my prime I practiced, now all my doubts are cleared.
Milarepa
The Dhamma is not a collection of doctrinal formulas but a path leading to direct insight into the nature of reality.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The only things that are truly mine are my actions and their results.
Milarepa
There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.
Buddha
When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.
Suzuki Roshi
The quality of every moment depends on the state of our minds.
Matthieu Ricard
A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.
Dogen
Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
Buddha
Sleep is the best meditation.
Dalai Lama
Each moment of clear seeing is a moment of freedom from the illusion of permanence, satisfaction, and self.
Mahasi Sayadaw
Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.
Matthieu Ricard
The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.
Suzuki Roshi
Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.
Suzuki Roshi
The nature of mind is not something we need to achieve - it's something we need to recognize.
Mingyur Rinpoche